ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S2763

Interdisciplinary - Health economics & health services research

ESTRO 2024

78

Digital Poster

Patient recruitment into clinical studies during the COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary cancer center

Jens von der Grün 1 , Maiwand Ahmadsei 1 , Isabel Breyer 2 , Christian Britschgi 3 , Daniel Eberli 4 , Thomas Hermanns 4 , Joanna Mangana 5 , Henrik Petrowsky 6 , Egle Ramelyte 5 , Patrick Roth 7 , Gabriel Schär 2 , isabelle Opitz 8 , Michael Weller 7 , Andreas Wicki 3 , Isabell Witzel 2 , Panagiotis Balermpas 1 , Matthias Guckenberger 1 1 University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich, Department of Radiation Oncology, Zurich, Switzerland. 2 University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich, Department of Gynecology, Zurich, Switzerland. 3 University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich, Department of Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Zurich, Switzerland. 4 University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich, Department of Urology, Zurich, Switzerland. 5 University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich, Department of Dermatology, Zurich, Switzerland. 6 University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich, Department of Surgery and Transplantation, Zurich, Switzerland. 7 University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich, Department of Neurology & Brain Tumor Center, Zurich, Switzerland. 8 University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zurich, Switzerland

Purpose/Objective:

To analyze clinical trial activities and patient recruitment numbers into prospective clinical studies for solid malignancies during the COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary cancer center.

Material/Methods:

Patient recruitment numbers in prospective clinical studies of solid malignancies were retrospectively analyzed for the years 2019 – 2021 at the Comprehensive Cancer Center Zurich (CCCZ). Changes in recruitment numbers were tested for association with organ-specific subunits, as well as organizational and treatment-related trial characteristics. To assess differences between categorical variables, Chi-squared test was used. For uni- and multivariate analysis, Cox proportional hazards were calculated.

Results:

In 2019, there were a total of 107 studies (registry trials, clinical phase I-III trials, and translational studies) recruiting 304 patients at the CCCZ. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, there were 120 and 125 active trials with a total recruitment of 355 and 666 patients, respectively. No significant differences between the subunits and study characteristics in changes of patient recruitment in clinical phase I-III trials were identified when the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (2019) was compared to the first year of the pandemic (2020) and to 2020-2021.

Conclusion: